Dear Friend of the Mission,
Homeless men usually feel pretty hopeless. They’ve been told that they need to pull themselves up by the bootstraps, but then they discover they have no bootstraps! Well-meaning people tell them they need to get a job, but who is going to hire a man who looks homeless and doesn’t smell all that good because he has been wearing the same clothes for days, and it is impossible to get a shower in the bathroom at McDonalds?
More and more job applications need to be submitted online with a computer, but many homeless men have never used a computer. Every legal job requires current state-issued identification to get hired, but many homeless men either have no state-issued identification, or the identification they have is expired and they have no money to get it renewed. These obstacles to employment and self-sufficiency are just a few of the barriers a homeless man faces as he tries to rebuild his life.
Most of us have family or friends that provide a safety net if we run into trouble. Sadly, this is not true for most of the homeless men who come to the Mission desperately looking for help. But by God’s grace, through your gifts the Whosoever Gospel Mission is able to impart real hope to our men by providing each man with all of the resources and help he needs to get a good job and to eventually move into his own place.
Right now, for example we have 11 men working at jobs outside of the Mission, three men going to vocational school and 6 men working hard to earn their GED through an intensive off-site educational program. These men are all moving forward and each one has a renewed sense of hope. We tell our men that in spite of any obstacles they may face, God can open a door that no one can shut. It is always a joyful sight to see the sadness and hopelessness on a man’s face replaced by laughter and hope. Your gifts truly will be used to turn frowns upside down!
We need your kind and generous support more than ever to keep on being a place of real hope for our men. We just found out that the Feinstein Foundation’s annual $1 million challenge grant has been discontinued indefinitely. Even though your generous gifts of food and cash will no longer be partially matched by the Feinstein Foundation as they were for the last 16 years or so, your gifts will still be a life-giving and a life-changing investment in the lives of our men. We are asking you to give during the months of March and April (when the Feinstein Challenge Grant campaign was conducted) as though the Feinstein $1 million Challenge Grant is still in force. Your gifts will make a big difference for good in the lives of our men.
Please see our updated Needs List. We always need cash to pay our bills, but this list also provides lots of other great ways that you, your family, your church, or your workplace can give a homeless man a hand-up and not just a hand-out.
Please look around on our website to see and hear testimonies of God’s amazing grace touching and changing the lives of our men both now and forever. You can donate online and can even set up an automatic monthly donation.
Working together with you,
Robert A. Emberger, D.Min.
Executive Director
P.S. More details will follow, but we hope to see you at our Night of Celebration on Saturday, May 16th. The program begins at 7:00 p.m. and will end by 8:30 p.m. Light refreshments will follow.